In the United States, Community Colleges are often referred to as Roach Motels. They are so called because people who begin attending Community Colleges rarely finsh. Rather, the tendency is for the students to just keep on taking one random course after another for 8-12 years without ever attaining a degree or advancing to a full college. Hence the students never really leave. That is to say, they check in, but they don't check out, as per the old TV ad.

What the English call Townies are the head Roaches of our Roach Motels.

-Man, is Bill still going to Virginia Western?

--Dude, he's been at that Roach Motel since the Eighties. He's banged a lot of thirty-five year old single mother gash but still no degree.

A hotel near the beach that's just cheap enough for those seniors on senior week who rebel against being cool and wasting money on an expensive hotel. The room is usually covered in blood stains and pubes that both range from 1963 to the present day. The beds are crawling with roaches hence the name "roach motel".

"Dude I only have 100 bucks for senior week."

"It's okay Todd we can stay at a roach motel and bring the babes back there when they're drunk!"

A used car dealership catering to people with bad credit. It most likely sells rattletrap older cars at inflated prices and charges exhorbitant interest rates. Buyers generally have to pay weekly or bi-weekly, as opposed to the monthly payments characteristic of legitimate lenders, and being even a few days late on a payment will trigger aggressive collections attempts and, quite possibly, repossession.